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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s main opposition leader and former prime minister, Imran Khan, was arrested Tuesday, authorities said, raising the stakes of the country’s political crisis and prompting clashes between his supporters and police.
Footage showed demonstrations across the country, with reports of tear gas and water cannons being deployed against Khan supporters in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and other cities.
Pakistani authorities and government officials said Khan was arrested in a corruption case that has been evolving for months, with the former prime minister accused of having been involved in money laundering. The former prime minister also faces a number of other charges in separate cases, all of which he has rejected.
Pakistani authorities said they had unsuccessfully sought Khan’s cooperation in the corruption probe. He was subsequently arrested by officers on high court premises in the capital of Islamabad, where he was set to attend hearings linked to different cases on Tuesday.
Pakistani police battle protesters in attempt to arrest opposition leader
Footage distributed by Khan’s party showed the opposition leader being pushed into a law enforcement vehicle. Officials said the arresting officers — members of a paramilitary force — were operating on a warrant from the country’s anti-corruption watchdog.
They denied accusations from Khan’s allies saying the former prime minister was beaten during his arrest. Neither side immediately provided evidence to back their claims.
Members of Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, say they suspect political motives behind the arrest. The government has repeatedly sought to delay key regional votes this year after Khan performed above expectations in by-elections last October.
The country’s deteriorating economic situation has become the top concern among many voters, with the current government and Khan trading blame over the root causes of the crisis. Financial experts fear the country may be on the verge of defaulting on its international loans.
Khan’s arrest comes after mounting public disputes between the former prime minister, who was ousted from his office last April, the current government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and the country’s powerful military. Khan had recently accused a senior officer of having been part of an assassination attempt against him last year, which he narrowly survived.
Khan has for months described himself as the victim of a plot, starting with what he says was a Western move to oust him last April. There have been several attempts to arrest him since, including one in March that resulted in fierce clashes and left many injured.
As he left his residence in the city of Lahore to attend the scheduled court hearings in Islamabad early Tuesday, he released a video message in which he said that he is “ready to go to jail,” but added that the accusations against him are unsubstantiated.
Later, in a response to Khan on Twitter, Sharif, the prime minister, accused his predecessor of “blatant lies, untruths, U-turns, and vicious attacks on institutions” and of bending “the judiciary to your whims and behaving as if rules don’t apply to you.”
Noack reported from Doha, Qatar, and Nawaz Khan from Peshawar, Pakistan.
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